The Big Dreams Beach Hotel by Lily Bartlett

The Big Dreams Beach Hotel by Lily Bartlett

Hello All!
Today is my spot on the blog tour for The Big Dreams Beach Hotel by Lily Bartlett and I am here to tell you my thoughts on the book!

As always, here’s more information on the book first.

About the Book

Wriggle your toes in the sand and feel the warm breeze on your face when you check into the hotel that’s full of dreams…

Three years after ditching her career in New York City, Rosie never thought she’d still be managing the quaint faded Victorian hotel in her seaside hometown.

What’s worse, the hotel’s new owners are turning it into a copy of their Florida properties. Flamingos and all. Cultures are clashing and the hotel’s residents stand in the way of the developers’ plans. The hotel is both their home and their family.

That’s going to make Rory’s job difficult when he arrives to enforce the changes. And Rosie isn’t exactly on his side, even though it’s the chance to finally restart her career. Rory might be charming, but he’s still there to evict her friends.

How can she follow her dreams if it means ending everyone else’s?

Goodreads. Amazon UK.

My Thoughts

I’m going to start this review by admitting that I’ve never read a book by Lilly Bartlett before but I will definitely be reading books by her from now on. I very much enjoyed The Big Dreams Beach Hotel. It had everything that I absolutely love about contemporary books in it – a group of characters at work that the main protagonists feels are family, strong friendships, strong relationships and lots, and lots of feelings and emotions flying around. On top of that, it was an easy read, full of great narration and chapters that kept you glued to the page in the best possible way. I absolutely loved returning to the book and seeing where the rest of the story was going to take me. This book also only took me two days to complete which at the moment is a true accomplishment!

The narration of this book was very unique. I liked the way it swapped between past and present, allowing us to know what had happened in Rosie’s past in sneak previews. I also thought it was interesting how Rosie would occasionally talk to the “reader” as well. It didn’t happen often but it was always really interesting when it did happen. I also really liked the way that the story flowed. Just when it seemed that one battle was over and completed, another would arrive and it would be up to Rosie and Rory to fix it without too much disruption. It definitely kept the reader on their toes as they waited for the next disaster to arise and see how it would get sorted by the pair.

Ultimately this book is very character driven and I am sure you know by now but I absolutely love stories that are character driven. I love it when we see not just the journey of the main protagonist but of all the characters surrounding them as well. This definitely happened in this book and I think my favourite sideline character duo was Peter and Barry. They came through so much in the outline of the book and I am so pleased for them both. I also really loved Colonel and Lill’s relationship as well and how that came to be by the end of it. And of course, there was Rosie and Rory. Both of them went on individual journeys and I honestly loved how much Rosie changed throughout the book. We didn’t get to see as much background about Rory as I would have liked and this was one of my small issues with the book but I’m hoping there might be a second book where we can find out a little more about him as he was quite a fascinating character!

While I very much liked this book, there were still some things that I had an issue with – mainly towards the end of the book. However I cannot really talk about them in this review without causing some MAJOR SPOILERS but I will say is that there is one aspect of Rosie’s life that I feel didn’t get clarified enough at the end and I really need to know how that ended for her. So if you’ve read it and want to talk to me about this, let me know! Otherwise this book is a truly wonderful book to read that I would absolutely recommend you to read. It’s full of many emotions and leaves you feeling happy and hopeful – which I absolutely love when it comes to reading. It also makes me want to go and work in a hotel for some bizarre reason…

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